Detroit, like many cities, is in great need of housing that’s both accessible and appropriate for its residents — especially the 40 percent of Black Detroiters who don’t have access to a car.

Six of the 11 Michigan cities subjected to emergency management saw changes to their drinking water systems that were implemented to save money or to reduce expenditures. In many cases, those decisions led to poor water quality, service unreliability and increases to water bills, according to the researchers.

The toolkit was introduced to coaches and administrators during the DPSCD Athletic Symposium in August. Sept.17 was National Concussion Awareness Day. 

Robin Jacob talks about the findings from a survey in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which showed that a significant number of students in the district had symptoms of anxiety or depression within the past year. She explains that the survey was conducted in collaboration with the TRAILS program at U-M to understand the level of need so they could tailor programming to those needs.

The project focuses on Zone 8, a predominantly Black neighborhood in Detroit, which takes its name from its zip code. Zone 8 experiences many of the inequalities that ravaged all of Detroit in the past decades — unemployment, addiction, persistent poverty, lack of affordable housing — in hyper-focused ways.

“We are very proud of being able to create a space for the community to be welcomed on a day-to-day basis, but also to have their voices heard, whether that’s in local activists or community members having a Q&A and discussion, or just having more representative films. Representation really does matter.”
~ Tim Guthat

The project builds on Tawanna Dillahunt and Julie Hui’s partnership with the Friends of Parkside to pilot a “community tech worker” program to assist seniors requiring technology-related support. Tech workers will be embedded at Jefferson East to develop a sustainable, useful model that will help bridge the digital divide for small businesses. 

The study gives Detroit PAL the expertise needed to assess and improve measurement tools and a research-based confirmation of a statistically significant result from their work.

While there was no evidence of significant gender differences in who was unemployed, the reported reasons for unemployment were different among women and men. Forty percent of unemployed women report they are not working in part due to family obligations, compared to only 12% of unemployed men.